Berwick-upon-Tweed - Edinburgh Haymarket Depot 1979. Drive a Class 55 with a rake of Mk2D carriages over one of the most challenging sections of mainline in Britain. Then try it in one of the newly introduced Intercity 125s. New Rolling Stock included. Class 55 Deltic Mk2 Air-conditioned stock HST in original British Rail condition. Scenarios and timetabled services for existing stock; Class 37 - Freight and passenger Class 40 - Freight Class 45 - On Cross-country services Class 47 - which ran some of the slower Intercity services and freight Class 101 - Popular in this area at the time. Lots of light engine and ECS coaching stock movements between the station and depot The main selling point of this route is the iconic Deltic and a BR Inter-city 125 as nature intended. But obviously it's a wonderful, scenic, challenging route too.
ECML got their HSTs after Western Region and they were starting to take over the express services in 1978, in turn the Deltics found themselves on stopper services, previously hauled by Class 47s. The fleet was deemed surplus to requirements due to there being only 22 of these highly complex locomotives and the cost of maintaining them, they were withdrawn from passenger services on 31st December 1981. 6 were preserved though only one D9019 (55019) Royal Highland Fusilier is operational at present, 4 are under repair/overhaul during this downturn in railtours.
This seems like a good potential for a future BR-blue route, and I would certainly buy it. It has a nice and iconic rolling stock selection, with me loving both the Class 50 with newer mk2 coaches and the BR blue HST! There is also a lot of nice layering potential, giving me (and others) more use out of the existing collection. I would also suggest adding in some shunting services with the class 08 for those that like it, and just the visual variety in yards along the line . I also love the inclusion of a depot, giving quite a few depot runs. Turning around the trains (the loco switching ends) would also give us a few interesting services that vary from the mainline runs, especially so if like on WCL the class 08 is involved in empty coaching stock moves.
Yes, lots of carriage shunting potential. Getting the sets in order and ready for services. I could spend a day just doing that. Eventually it would be a good excuse to have a Class 26 too. An updated version with a 91 and Scotrail 150s and 156s would be good too. But I really was looking for a good excuse to have a Deltic and proper 125 in the game.
There would be added variety as in 1979 Finsbury Park's Deltics had the cab window surrounds painted white.
